Solar Power Planned for Sunshine State

Tampa Electric, an electric utility based in central Florida, announced on Monday an agreement to purchase solar power from Energy 5.0’s Florida Solar I facility, a proposed 25-megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic (PV) electric generating station, for a 25-year period beginning in 2011.

The new solar power facility is slated to be built on a 200 to 400 acre area of land in Polk County, Florida and would be one of the largest solar PV facilities in the country. The 25 MW capacity is expected to be enough to power more than 3,400 homes within Tampa Electric’s service territory, homes which consume approximately 14,000 kWh per year each on average.

Over the contract’s term, the project is also expected to avoid the emission of up to 1.45 million tons of carbon dioxide when compared to a natural gas-fired peaking combustion turbine.